The prospect of bringing any version of the French magazine Metal Hurlant to the screen is daunting to say the least. It was tried to great (cult) success with the adult animated film Heavy Metal (1981) and attempted again (to less acclaim) with the also animated (and equally adult) Heavy Metal 2000 (2000). The strange and surreal ships, landscapes, characters, situations and space scenes are so uniquely heavy metal that translating this to the screen is virtually impossible. Sure Heavy Metal proved to have visual treasures, but overall the look is dated. The sequel suffers from a single, too-long story that doesn’t ever quite get to where it’s going.

In 2012 French companies tried this again for the smaller screen with the live-action Metal Hurlant Chronicles which, like the magazine, is an anthology series with no (or little) continuity between the episodes. Surely in the new millennium with evolved CGI animation techniques, brilliant budget saving measures and a format that can attract recognizable stars (who won’t have to sign multi-episode contracts), Metal Hurlant could be a great success.

Judging from the Blu Ray release Metal Hurlant Chronicles: The Complete Series, the show definitely had the potential to be something great. Avoiding a central storyline, a burning asteroid called Metal Hurlant travels through various dimensions of space and time to bring us bizarre stories based on the comic book, while barely interacting with the action at all.

While often these outer space scenes are impressive, once the first episode “King’s Crown” kicks off, we are left with something that looks overall remarkably cheap. With such shows as Spartacus: Blood and Sand (2010) and Game of Thrones bringing sword-and-sorcery to the small screen with impressive visuals, this similar story (set on another world with medieval undertones) never quite looks like a professional production, instead feeling like a direct-to-video mockbuster. That said, the final twist in the end almost makes up for the rest.

Twists in the end are the very core of Metal Hurlant Chronicles. Like a modern Twilight Zone (with CGI and without the genius of Serling), the show packs the kinds of surprises that keep the viewer guessing until the last second. That is to say that when a surprise is heavily hinted at, it may or may not come to pass. That said, the opposite may or may not come to pass and some third or fourth or fifth random possibility may prove to be the twist in the end.

Expecting the unexpected bears little fruit here.

Then again, not every episode is sheer genius and much of the successes of each story falls on the shoulders of the episode’s director. I would do a quick compare and contrast for you, but Guillaume Lubrano is credited as the director of every single episode. Some are pretty damned good. Some are less so. Some are incredibly forgettable.

Standouts include the second episode “Shelter Me”, which takes place in a bomb shelter with only two occupants, James Marsters and Michelle Ryan. As Ryan’s character was unconscious when she was brought to the shelter (and Marsters was, above ground, known for being just the tiniest bit creepy), the question arises as to whether there is truly any danger in the outside world or not. But with investigating leading to certain death who would dare hazard a guess?

The fifth episode is another mostly impressive offering. “Master of Destiny” stars the remarkably underrated American actor Joe Flanigan as a rogue of a star pilot on the hunt for a mysterious alien race. You might not always like what his character “Hondo” does, but you will certainly want to know what he does next.

More often than not, however, Metal Hurlant Chronicles falls right in the middle with episodes that vary in quality even within their limited runtimes. “Three on a Match” has a challenging premise that somehow still feels by-the-numbers with mismatched puzzle pieces often shoved in haphazardly. “Red Light/Cold Hard Facts” similarly has an inventive beginning, middle and very surprising end, but somehow the viewer still is left wanting something more substantial.

While the series is often hit and miss, the Blu Ray musters up some interesting extras like motion comics (for fun comparisons), featurettes, convention appearances, interviews and even alternate French Language tracks.

Fans of the show will find a lot more to love in this three disc set, however, those whom the show rarely failed to connect with might have a hard time caring even with the special features. As an anthology, however, there are some really fantastic moments that, taken piecemeal, might make for an entertaining viewing experience, initiated or not.

White Hills epic '80s callback
Stop Mute Defeat is a determined march against encroaching imperial darkness; their eyes boring into the shadows for danger but they're aware that blinding lights can kill and distort truth. From "Overlord's" dark stomp casting nets for totalitarian warnings to "Attack Mode", which roars in with the tribal certainty that we can survive the madness if we keep our wits, the record is a true and timely win for Dave W. and Ego Sensation. Martin Bisi and the poster band's mysterious but relevant cool make a great team and deliver one of their least psych yet most mind destroying records to date. Much like the first time you heard Joy Division or early Pigface, for example, you'll experience being startled at first before becoming addicted to the band's unique microcosm of dystopia that is simultaneously corrupting and seducing your ears. - Morgan Y. Evans

The year in song reflected the state of the world around us. Here are the 70 songs that spoke to us this year.

70. The Horrors - "Machine"

On their fifth album V, the Horrors expand on the bright, psychedelic territory they explored with Luminous, anchoring the ten new tracks with retro synths and guitar fuzz freakouts. "Machine" is the delicious outlier and the most vitriolic cut on the record, with Faris Badwan belting out accusations to the song's subject, who may even be us. The concept of alienation is nothing new, but here the Brits incorporate a beautiful metaphor of an insect trapped in amber as an illustration of the human caught within modernity. Whether our trappings are technological, psychological, or something else entirely makes the statement all the more chilling. - Tristan Kneschke

"...when the history books get written about this era, they'll show that the music community recognized the potential impacts and were strong leaders." An interview with Kevin Erickson of Future of Music Coalition.

Last week, the musician Phil Elverum, a.k.a. Mount Eerie, celebrated the fact that his album A Crow Looked at Me had been ranked #3 on the New York Times' Best of 2017 list. You might expect that high praise from the prestigious newspaper would result in a significant spike in album sales. In a tweet, Elverum divulged that since making the list, he'd sold…six. Six copies.

Under the lens of cultural and historical context, as well as understanding the reflective nature of popular culture, it's hard not to read this film as a cautionary tale about the limitations of isolationism.

I recently spoke to a class full of students about Plato's "Allegory of the Cave". Actually, I mentioned Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" by prefacing that I understood the likelihood that no one had read it. Fortunately, two students had, which brought mild temporary relief. In an effort to close the gap of understanding (perhaps more a canyon or uncanny valley) I made the popular quick comparison between Plato's often cited work and the Wachowski siblings' cinema spectacle, The Matrix. What I didn't anticipate in that moment was complete and utter dissociation observable in collective wide-eyed stares. Example by comparison lost. Not a single student in a class of undergraduates had partaken of The Matrix in all its Dystopic future shock and CGI kung fu technobabble philosophy. My muted response in that moment: Whoa!

Allen Ginsberg and Robert Lowell at St. Mark's Church in New York City, 23 February 1977

Scholar Christopher Grobe crafts a series of individually satisfying case studies, then shows the strong threads between confessional poetry, performance art, and reality television, with stops along the way.

Tracing a thread from Robert Lowell to reality TV seems like an ominous task, and it is one that Christopher Grobe tackles by laying out several intertwining threads. The history of an idea, like confession, is only linear when we want to create a sensible structure, the "one damn thing after the next" that is the standing critique of creating historical accounts. The organization Grobe employs helps sensemaking.